On finally getting the chance to get back in the cage:
I'm so excited for the opportunity again that the UFC waited on me after everything came back ok with my health. I'm gonna make the most of it. I'm just super excited to be back and competing again. Do what I love to do, you know?
Tim views training a little differently than some fighters. And the last line of this is pretty funny:
I don't do camps. I'm not a "camp" fighter. After my fights are over, I just get right back in the gym on Monday. I don't have a choice. This is my business. Martial arts is my life. I've been in the gym ever since the Nate Quarry fight was over and I don't even think about ring rust or nothing. I think about the white trash street fight that's gonna happen on Saturday and I can't wait.
On his opponent, Ed Herman. Yes, Ed Herman:
It ain't a secret what Ed Herman's going to try to do. Ed Herman is Ed Herman. He ain't changed. A zebra don't change its stripes, man. Ed Herman's Ed Herman.
His description of how fighter insurance is "life changing" for him is something you really need to read the full interview to understand fully, but here's a snippet:
This kind of insurance policy insures that we'll be able to pick up our grandkids when we're older. We'll be able to go outside and teach our grandkids how to box and how to kickbox and I'm not gonna have to go through 35 years of my life with a partially torn ACL. That's what many fighters before us, our forefathers, that's what they had to do. They had to endure horrible injuries and still get in there and fight for $2000 just in the hopes that the UFC insurance policy would cover them to go get surgery. Now, you've got guys in the NFL, they're out with turf toe, bro. Turf toe? Are you kidding me? You've got guys in the UFC fighting with torn ACLs, torn rotator cuffs, herniated disks and they're not going to go play a couple downs. They're cagefighting for 15 minutes with a professional fighting athlete. That's unbelievable.
The second part of the interview is Tim's answer to just one question, but it's an amazing story. Again, I can't do it justice here and you should read the whole thing to get the full picture, but here's what he was dealing with and why he hasn't been in the cage for so long:
When the scan came back that there was an anomaly, he was the one that told me. I went in to his office and he told me, "Tim, I don't know what this means. You've got to go see a specialist. No doubt about it, you cannot fight. Whether or not you can ever fight again, I have no idea. This could be the beginning of an aneurysm, it could be a tumor. It could be a host of things but it's definitely not normal and it's not supposed to be there. Other than that, we don't have a whole lot of information but there needs to be a lot of time-tests done."
...
It was kinda scary walking to my car, what am I gonna tell my wife? Good lord, we just bought a new house and I don't even know what to do. Interestingly enough, she calls my phone......to tell me she's pregnant with our first child. What?!?! Within 15 minutes of hearing I may never fight again I find out I'm having my first baby. That was a tough day you know?
Some fighter interviews are the same old "I'm gonna beat my opponent" stuff, and some are truly interesting and insightful. This definitely falls into the latter category, and as I said above, it's worth a full read....
It was kinda scary walking to my car, what am I gonna tell my wife? Good lord, we just bought a new house and I don't even know what to do. Interestingly enough, she calls my phone......to tell me she's pregnant with our first child. What?!?! Within 15 minutes of hearing I may never fight again I find out I'm having my first baby. That was a tough day you know?
